Sub-Saharan Africa insights

Climate change matters for education – and education matters in the fight against climate change. As this issue rightly continues to generate public and policy attention, it is critical that the connections between climate change and education are not overlooked. The risks posed to learners by the changing climate are very real – especially in low-and-middle-income contexts – but we must also carefully consider how education could mitigate aspects of this huge global challenge.

The modern labour market can be a challenging, competitive and complex place for young people to navigate. There are approximately 73 million unemployed youth globally (ILO.org). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated the share of youth aged 15-24 not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2020 to be at 23% globally and at 33% in Southern Africa, 31% in MENA and 11% in European Union member states (ILOSTAT). Successful engagement of young people in the labour market is essential for their own personal livelihoods and wellbeing and for social and economic change.

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the globe, schools were confronted by a period of exceptional uncertainty. Headteachers, with often minimal experience or training in crisis leadership, needed to react quickly to minimise disruption to learning. Education Development Trust (EDT) has been collaborating with UNESCO-IIEP as a thought leadership partner to consider how education leadership might be strengthened in crisis settings, as part of IIEP’s work on crisis-sensitive planning.

Alongside the ongoing learning crisis exacerbated by Covid-19, it remains as urgent as ever for education systems to respond to climate change. In many countries, extreme weather, floods and droughts are already causing disruption to schools and research shows that climate vulnerability is detrimental to learning outcomes. At the same time, emerging evidence shows education as a valuable tool for helping people adapt to climatic shocks, calculate risks and embed sustainable practices in their daily lives. So, what do we know about the role of education in the fight against climate change and what further research is needed to effectively address the intersecting crises of learning and climate?

Education is a prominent casualty in crisis situations, but it also plays a critical role in emergency response. Continued access to school provides a place of protection and sense of normalcy for children, while effective approaches to learning and inclusion foster resilience, and support longer-term processes of economic recovery and peace. With refugee numbers hitting headlines again, we reflect on two focus areas developed over more than 20 years’ experience working in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Education Development Trust has a long history of working in Rwanda. Our teams worked with the ministry of education in a post-genocide Rwanda in 2001 to design the education sector strategic plan, the framework of which is still in use today. Our five-year programme, Building Learning Foundations, is about getting the foundations in place to positively effect the rest of Rwanda's education system.

Gender gaps in education widen significantly at the time of adolescence due to the compounding disadvantage faced by girls, including negative gender norms, and health and safety risks. Our Girls’ Education Challenge project in Kenya works to support girls in a tailored way as they transition to secondary or vocational education and training pathways. In this case study, we illustrate the power of our guiding principle for adolescent girls’ education: as girls grow, we need to grow with them.

Improving learning outcomes for girls requires gender-sensitive, participatory, and context-driven solutions. In this commentary, we reflect on the results of a recent baseline analysis conducted for our latest pilot intervention under the Building Learning Foundations Programme – the launch of girls’ clubs in Rwanda.

The links between education, gender and climate change have been the subject of growing attention in recent months, but must be viewed with attention to nuance. In this commentary, we reflect on these connections and the related discussions from the 2021 WISE Summit, where we hosted a panel session on these important issues.

Our approach to improving outcomes for girls through better quality pedagogy is based on a rigorous and holistic understanding of what it takes to change the behaviour of all actors in schools and across local and national systems. This includes leaders, teachers and learners – we call it ‘Good quality pedagogy for learning and equity.’ In this commentary, we discuss the key aspects of our approach to this critical issue for improving learning for all girls and boys across the world.

Our Building Learning Foundations (BLF) programme is taking a system-wide approach to improving girls’ and boys’ learning in Rwanda, tackling inequality through teacher development, school leadership, system strengthening, inclusive education and safeguarding. This also involves addressing gendered inequalities within the education system. In this case study, we focus on the elements of the BLF programme that specifically aim to improve gender equity in learning and enhance female leadership for learning.

Teachers are among the most critical actors in ensuring meaningful change in education systems around the world and ensuring their buy-in to gender-responsive pedagogy and the importance of educating girls will be crucial to achieving gender equity in education. In this commentary, we draw on our recent research project with the British Council to explore teachers’ and school leaders’ attitudes to girls’ education in Nigeria, as well as examples of promising practice.